Tag: freedom

Starlab gets another investor

9:40 am

Starlab design as of December 2025
Starlab design as of December 2025

The consortium building the Starlab space station today announced that the investment firm 1789 Capital has made a “strategic investment” in the station’s construction, though neither would state the amount of that investment.

Starlab Space Stations and 1789 Capital announced 1789 Capital’s strategic investment in Starlab. The investment reflects mounting confidence that Starlab — the U.S.-led joint venture, next-generation commercial space station — represents a durable and commercially grounded cornerstone of the post-International Space Station (ISS) low-Earth orbit (LEO) economy.

…“America built the space age and must lead the next one,” said Omeed Malik, founder and president, 1789 Capital. “We invest in the next chapter of American exceptionalism, and Starlab is turning that vision into reality.” The firm’s investment in Starlab reflects its thesis that critical infrastructure — from the digital to the orbital — represents a generational opportunity where national interest and investor returns are aligned.

When asked, Starlab’s press office simply said “We are not disclosing the value at this time.” This has been the company’s policy when it comes to private investment. In January 2026 it announced another major investor without disclosing the amount invested.

Nonetheless, this new investment strengthens Starlab’s overall position, even if that support is tentative. In my rankings below of the five stations under development, Starlab, Vast, and Axiom remain essentially tied for first place..
» Read more

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Rocket Lab launches radar satellite for Japanese company Synspective

8:24 am

Rocket Lab early today successfully completed its ninth launch (out of a 27-launch contract) for the Japanese radar satellite company Synspective, its Electron rocket lifting off from one of its two launchpads in New Zealand.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

59 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
7 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 59 to 51.

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Rocket Lab wins $90 million Space Force contract to build two geostationary satellites

8:01 am

Rocket Lab yesterday announced it has been awarded a $90 million contract by the Space Force to build two geostationary satellites for the military’s “space doman awareness” constellation.

Though Rocket Lab has built and launched a number of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites for both commercial and military customers, these two satellites will be the first in geosynchronous orbit.

Rocket Lab will serve as prime contractor and end-to-end mission provider, responsible for spacecraft design and manufacture, integration of the in-house Heimdall optical payload produced by Rocket Lab Optical Systems, launch integration onto a government-furnished launch vehicle, and on-orbit operations for up to five years following commissioning. The two satellites will be built on Rocket Lab’s Lightning bus, adapted for the thermal, radiation, propulsion, and station-keeping demands of GEO.

Though Rocket Lab is mostly considered a rocket company, it has done an excellent job diversifying its capabilities so as to sell aerospace products across a range of areas. This contract continues that successful trend.

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Starship/Superheavy launch scrubbed at T-40 seconds

4:44 pm

Starship at that hold today
Starship at that hold today

Though SpaceX mission controllers tried several times to restart the countdown when it went into an automatic hold at T-40 seconds due to some technical issues, they eventually decided to scrub the Starship/Superheavy launch today.

At present they expect to try again tomorrow, with a launch window opening at 5:30 pm (central). Expect updates later today or tomorrow.

One trivia fact noted during today’s broadcast. With its new more powerful Raptor-3 engines, Superheavy produces about 18 million pounds of thrust at launch. That is more than twice that of either the Saturn-5 rocket (seven million pounds) or the SLS rocket (8.8 million pounds). And remember, everything about Starship/Superheavy is intended to be reused, with Superheavy already proving its ability to do so.

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Watching SpaceX’s 12th Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight today

9:52 am

Assuming all goes as planned, SpaceX intends to launch its new upgraded Starship/Superheavy rocket later today, with a launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central).

The upcoming flight will debut the next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles, powered by the next evolution of the Raptor engine and launching from a newly designed pad at Starbase.

The flight test’s primary goal will be to demonstrate each of these new pieces in the flight environment for the first time, with each element of the Starship architecture featuring significant redesigns to enable full and rapid reuse that incorporate learnings from years of development and test.

I have embedded below several different live streams of the flight, including a link to SpaceX’s live feed on X. That SpaceX live feed however will only go live at 4:43 pm (Central). The other feeds are using Youtube, and either will go live sooner or are able to be on stand-by awaiting the beginning of the feeds.
» Read more

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Starfish finally gets a docking target for its Otter Pup 2 orbital tug demo

9:33 am

Remora rendezvous
Images taken by Starfish’s camera on Impulse mission
in December 2025.

The orbital tug company Starfish Space has finally found a docking target for its Otter Pup 2 orbital tug demo satellite that has been in orbit since 2025. Otter Pup 2 was originally supposed to dock with D-Orbit’s ION satellite, but for unknown reasons that docking was cancelled. Since then Otter Pup 2 has remained in orbit as the company searched for an alternative target.

It has now made a deal with the Australian rocket startup Gilmour Space to use its own first demo satellite, ElaraSat.

Over the past couple of months, the Starfish team has been maneuvering Otter Pup 2 into the proper orbit to catch up with ElaraSat. The next phase will be to close the gap between the two satellites to about 6 miles (10 kilometers). Then Otter Pup 2 will transition into an acquisition phase. “Acquisition is the stage for us where Otter Pup’s onboard cameras start taking pictures of a large satellite regularly — lock onto it, if you will — and start maneuvering much, much closer,” Bennett said. “This is what will bring us down to the kilometer-type range.”

Otter Pup 2 will fly itself around ElaraSat for a thorough inspection and calibration of Otter Pup’s sensors and control system. Then the satellite will close in to attach itself to ElaraSat using an electrostatic docking mechanism.

The company’s goal is to demonstrate the practicality of that “electrostatic docking mechanism” so as to encourage as many satellite makers as possible to use it. Apparently Gilmour had agreed to do so on ElaraSat before launch, allowing for this switch when D-Orbit backed out.

On another mission in 2025 Starfish demonstrated that its software and camera design for rendezvous and proximity maneuvers works, as shown by the image above. On that mission this equipment was installed on a Mira orbital tug, built by Impulse Space, and was used to maneuver within 4,100 feet of another Mira tug.

As competitive as free enterprise normally is, note the amount of cooperation between multiple orbital tug and satellite companies, including Starfish, Impulse, and Gilmour. It proves that if a company can demonstrate it has a product of value, others — even its competitors — will be willing to buy it.

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SpaceX launches 29 more Starlink satellites

8:37 am

SpaceX early today successfully placed another 29 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

The first stage (B1077) completed its 28th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic, 64 days after its previous flight. With this flight, the booster moves into a tie for seventh place with the Columbia shuttle in the rankings of the most reused launch vehicles:

39 Discovery space shuttle
34 Falcon 9 booster B1067
33 Atlantis space shuttle
33 Falcon 9 booster B1071
32 Falcon 9 booster B1063
31 Falcon 9 booster B1069
28 Columbia space shuttle
28 Falcon 9 booster B1077
27 Falcon 9 booster B1078

Sources here and here.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

59 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 59 to 50.

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SpaceX files first IPO documents with SEC

5:00 am

Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad
Starship/Superheavy (version 3) on launchpad for launch
later today.

After months of speculation and behind the scenes planning, SpaceX yesterday finally filed the initial public offering (IPO) documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlining the company’s financial standing, in order to give potential stock purchasers an idea of what they are buying.

The filing shows SpaceX’s Connectivity segment, driven primarily by Starlink, has become the company’s financial engine. The segment generated $11.4 billion in revenue during 2025, along with $4.4 billion in operating income and $7.2 billion in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The company said the business benefited from subscriber growth [now 10.3 million], wider enterprise adoption and improved network efficiency, with operating income rising more than 120% year over year.

By contrast, the company’s newly acquired AI segment is consuming cash at a remarkable pace. The AI business generated $3.2 billion in revenue during 2025 but posted an operating loss of $6.4 billion as SpaceX ramped investment in AI applications and compute infrastructure. Capital expenditures tied to the AI segment reached $12.7 billion during the year, far exceeding spending in the Space and Connectivity businesses.

…SpaceX’s Space segment generated $4.1 billion in revenue in 2025 and posted a $657 million operating loss. The company spent more than $3 billion on research and development tied to Starship during the year alone. The filing described Starship as the “key enabler” of SpaceX’s long-term growth strategy, saying the vehicle is designed to dramatically improve payload capacity, reusability and launch frequency while opening entirely new categories of missions.

Capital expenditures in the Space segment totaled $3.8 billion in 2025, reflecting the enormous infrastructure demands tied to developing and scaling the Starship program. On a consolidated basis, SpaceX reported $18.7 billion in revenue during 2025, alongside an operating loss of $2.6 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $6.6 billion. For the first quarter of 2026, the company reported revenue of $4.7 billion and an operating loss of nearly $1.9 billion.

In other words, Starlink and rocket sales are paying for the development of Starship and AI.

It appears the company is targeting an early to mid June date for the actual IPO, which some on Wall Street predict could bring in $75 billion in cash. This will be in addition to the $12 billion SpaceX has already raised in private investment capital as well as the more than $12 billion in revenue it earns each year from its Starlink subscribers. Note also that this Starlink annual revenue is presently about half that of NASA’s annual budget, with no upper limit in sight.

In other words, if all goes as planned, the company will have about $100 billion on hand to develop all its business models, with Starship/Superheavy likely leading the way.

I repeat: SpaceX is America’s space program. NASA is merely a sideshow that will become increasingly irrelevant as SpaceX gears up to full speed. And if things go as I believe they will, SpaceX’s success will act to fuel the rest of the American space industry, making the government even less important.

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Vast unveils new high powered satellite bus to support the expected boom in satellite construction

9:21 am

Haven-1 with docked Dragon capsule
Artist rendering of Vast’s Haven-1 station, with a docked
Dragon capsule. Like Have Demo, it is being built using
company funds with no government support.

The space station startup Vast yesterday unveiled a new product line of high powered satellite buses, dubbed Vast Satellite, designed to support the expected boom in satellite construction.

With the launch of Vast Satellite, Vast is expanding beyond commercial space stations into high-volume spacecraft platforms designed for high-performance orbital missions. The first offering is a 15 kW-class satellite bus designed to support a wide array of power-intensive missions through flexible configurations.

Built around common in-house subsystems—including avionics, power, communications, propulsion, and flight software—Vast Satellite leverages technologies already developed for its Haven-1 space station, and validated through the successful Haven Demo mission in 2025. This shared architecture combined with Vast’s vertically integrated manufacturing model and advanced production capabilities is designed to support faster development timelines, lower costs, and increased mission reliability.

The company says it has already sold four buses to a confidential customer, with an option for 200 more. This sale occurred because Vast has proved itself with its policy of committing its own investment capital in designing, building, and flying demo missions. The Haven Demo was initially launched to test the subsystems to be used on the Haven-1 single module station the company hopes to fly next year on a three-year mission, during which four two-week manned crews will occupy it. That success allowed Vast to now diversify, using what it learned and proved on that demo to sell new products to other customers.

Similarly, its Haven-1 station, built on its own dime with no NASA funds, is intended to prove its capability as a space station provider. If successful, it is certain at that point to attract customers, including NASA.

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Sri Lanka’s government to formulate a space policy

8:45 am

The Sri Lanka government has now established a committee whose task will be to formulate the country’s first space policy.

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution presented by the Minister of Science and Technology to appoint an expert committee tasked with formulating Sri Lanka’s first National Space Policy. According to the government, space technology has become a critical driver of national development, delivering benefits across disaster management, communication, security, environmental monitoring, and economic innovation.

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty, so any policy it establishes has to fall under its rules and limitations. This op-ed today in one of the nation’s major media outlets provides a very detailed overview of the issues. It seems the country has a lot of options, most of which revolve around attracting already established aerospace companies to build there.

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SpaceX launches 24 Starlink satellites

8:30 am

SpaceX in the early morning hours today successfully placed another 24 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage completed its second flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The leaders in the 2026 launch race:

58 SpaceX
28 China
8 Russia
6 Rocket Lab

For the third straight year SpaceX leads the entire world combined in total launches, 58 to 50.

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BUMPED: 12th Starship/Superheavy test delayed another day to May 21, 2026

10:08 am

UPDATE: One day after its announcement below, SpaceX announced another one day delay. The 12th Starship/Superheavy launch is now targeting May 21, 2026, with a launch window beginning at 5:30 pm (Central).

Original post:
———————
SpaceX earlier today announced a revised launch date for the 12th Starship/Superheavy orbital test flight, delayed one day from May 19, 2026 to May 20, 2026, with a launch window opening at 5:30 pm (Central).

No reason was given. I suspect weather might have played a factor, but it is also possible that some technical issues required a short delay.

Either way, the link to the X live feed will be posted here once it goes live. I will also embed it on Behind the Black once it goes live.

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